The 28th of August, 2022, will forever be a day to remember especially for Rap Legend, Nicki Minja and her fans (Barbz) as she is honoured with the 2022 MTV VMAs Vanguard award.
There were so many iconic moments in the night of the event.
From the black carpet arrivals to the performances, and a few references, the night went in several roars from the ecstatic crowd.
Just like every VMAs, the crowd didn’t want the night to end. The stage setting was epic, perfect lighting and sound with cheering authentic crowds ranging from the celebrities to the fans.
Here are the five iconic moments of 2022 VMAs
This was Nicki Minaj’s night as she was honoured with the Michael Jackson award. It’s a huge achievement for the Queen of Hip Hop as she fondly calls herself and the barbz agrees.
Fergie’s surprise
As the event night commences, rapper Jack Harlow who is also one of the hosts for the night performed his hit single, First Class. He had brought up Fergie to sing with him on stage and you could see the crowd riling up to share excitement.
Lizzo’s clapback
The ‘About Damn Time’ crooner won the award for the Video For Good category. The bubbling singer thanked her fans for voting for her and she had a little clapback to send to her haters. Using the infamous Nicki Minaj’s clapback at Miley in the VMAs 2015, she said “And now, to the bitches that got a lot of things to say about me in the press… ” After a long pause, she said she will not say anything even though her fans had wanted her to clapback, she won’t because she is still winning. Remember that Nicki had used the same words in 2015 when she had challenged Miley Cyrus for saying messy things about her in the press. She got her iconic “Miley, what’s good?” Slang from there.
Nicki Minaj Whitney Houston
Speaking of references and paying homage. Nicki Minaj, who had listed Whitney Houston amongst those she thanked for their inspiration to her success during her Vanguard speech, had equally used one of Houston’s iconic statements while she was giving her appreciation speech for winning Best Hip Hop Award for her song ‘Do We Have A Problem’. “You better lay low, that’s mine!” She said repeatedly, same thing Whitney Houston had used on stage years ago.
Nicki Minaj’s performance
What’s a 2022 MTV VMAs night without the barbie themed performance by the Queen herself. She had started in a dark cubicle with a few of her hit songs especially her iconic Monster Verse and the crowd were singing word for word. It was epic! She performed other songs like Moment for Life, Super Bass, Chun Li, even her latest single, Super Freaky Girl. The stage was lit in a pink setting with dancers in pink, black outfits. The crowd were equally cheering and rapping her songs along with her, that includes moments like Taylor Swift urging people behind her to stand up to celebrate her, Chloe and Blackpink singing along, SnoopDogg, Lil Nas, Jack Harlow singing with her.
Eminem’s return
The Rap god has finally returned to stage after a long time of hiatus. He had performed, spitting bars with SnoopDogg. Their performance had been a pre-recorded performance where the duo were pictured as animated. They had smoked a particular content and had gotten so high they were oblivious of their environment. The crowd cheered for them after their performance.
Let’s not forget how Bad Bunny kissed his male dancer on stage. Is he trying to come out? We will have to wait for that.
There were classic re-run outfits like Taylor Swift in her banging lookalike silver dress that she wore in a music video. And Lil Nas X appearing in a similar Met Gala outfit. Nicki Minaj, the celebrant of the day also had multiple wardrobe changes.
In one of her outfits, which is the last one, it looked like the exact one she wore at the 2015 VMAs. Even her bangs were similar.
Other moments include Nicki Minaj presenting Taylor Swift an award, something they had shared together on stage years ago, LL Cool J and Nicki Minaj together on stage as they were years ago, and many more.
